Irma L. Olguin Jr.

My stance that the one reliable way to determine if your audience is learning is by eavesdropping. Continue reading →

…will lead you to your destination. — Mary Chapin Carpenter, The Long Way Home I went to school on an academic scholarship, and I wish I could say that I got to do that on account of my incredible foresight,  determination, and hard work.  But that’s not at all what happened.  Here’s how it went down: When I was fairly young (7), I realized it felt really good to do well on my homework.  When you’re seven, you don’t really think of things in terms of hard and not-hard.  You think of things in terms of in-trouble versus not-in-trouble.  I didn’t think about being smarter than everyone else, I just saw an easy way to not agitate the adults at home or at school, and that seemed just fine to me. Compliments about being smart were nice, but really, I was … Continue reading →

I feel a followup is necessary to undo some of the moaning and groaning of my last posting. Here, I list some things that are the human equivalent to how a dog must feel when his belly is being rubbed.  So, without further ado, I give you…my buttons: People that employ seldom used words in everyday converstation. The feeling of drying off in the sun. Tucking my feet under the person sitting next to me.  (The other person tends to not like this as much as I do Cran-Grape Juice, Lucky Charms, cinammon suckers, and cold glasses of milk. Movie gift-certificates. The way my dog lets me hold his feet when he’s sleeping. Strangers that quote Friends or West Wing. People that R.O.C.K. O.U.T.  in their cars or to their iPods. Telling stories about my family. Brand new socks.  (This … Continue reading →

Just a list of things I don’t like. Continue reading →

An honest to goodness examination of what one is supposed to do when money IS an option. Continue reading →

Entreprenuerial programmers can see the end product in their heads before they get started writing the spec.   That vision of the end prodcut is the reason for starting to develop in the first place.  But seeing the end product is a long way from what it takes to make a good programmer.  Really all that means is that they are good dreamers, and has nothing at all to do with writing code. Good programmers follow specs (you do have a spec, don’t you?) and cover all the edge cases as they write code, test  and fix (write code test, and fix,  write code, test and…) But it’s the entreprenuerial programmers that muscle through that, from the very beginning, and do something mediocre programmers will never do: See the Build When a programmer begins to visualize how each module of … Continue reading →

Everybody is asked, at one time or another, to do something they don’t know how to do.  Some people come out with a product, or a presentation, or an idea that, quite simply, ROCKS YOUR FACE.  Others fall flat on their own.  And the question I want to ask is, “How do the good ones do it?”. The other day I was looking at this thing online and my job (that day) was to improve the user’s experience when using that thing.  I was hired to do this.  I was asked to, “Please make it work more and cause fewer complaints.”  So I set about the task of “fixing” it. Along the way, and across many iterations, I realized that the routine had become mechanical.  I was taking this thing and changing the pieces that didn’t seem right.  I didn’t … Continue reading →

There’s a healthy debate going on in which youngish people are wondering if going to college is worth the money, the time, the effort, the … hustle.  In fact, coverage of this very thing can be found on this website, Nettuts, which is known for it’s tutorials and not so much for its articles (you’ll see why).  If you ask me, the go-to-college-vs-get-a-job debate is tired.  Historically, college graduates make more than non-graduates, but that gap is closing.  I, for one, think there are better reasons to go to college than your salary, but I digress. Really, there are two things that I hear often enough to write about on account of their absurdity: “My friend so-and-so got her degree in [ something ] and hasn’t been able to find a job in [ a number of  ] years.” “My … Continue reading →

The things we don’t say to students (but should!) in a neat little Top Ten list. Continue reading →

About being brutally honest with yourself, and the words you use. Continue reading →